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Dessert

Apple Pie

A pastry crust filled with apples, sugar, lemon, cloves, mace, and a creamy topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Roll out the puff pastry and place it around the edge of a pie dish.

  3. Layer the quartered apples in the dish and sprinkle with half the sugar.

  4. Finely mince a little lemon peel and spread the minced peel over the apples and sugar.

  5. Squeeze in some lemon juice, scatter a few cloves on top, then add the remaining apples and sugar.

  6. Add another squeeze of lemon juice.

Make the apple syrup

  1. Boil the apple parings and cores in water with a blade of mace until flavored.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Add a little sugar.

  4. Boil until reduced.

  5. Pour the reduced liquid into the pie.

Bake and finish

  1. Cover with the pastry.

  2. Bake.

  3. Beat the egg yolks with cream, nutmeg, and sugar over low heat until near boiling.

  4. Remove the pie lid.

  5. Pour the mixture inside.

  6. Cut the pastry into small triangles and place them on top of the pie.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the bulk of the filling and tart, fruity flavor as they soften during baking.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream custard poured into the pie, giving it a rich, set texture.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture to the custard, softening its texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the apples and sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and syrup and helps draw out their juices.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Beating the egg yolks with cream over low heat. Egg yolks set when heated gently; if the mixture heats too fast or boils, the yolks scramble and the custard turns grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, clove, mace, egg, cream, nutmeg):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, clove, mace, egg, cream, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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